Ex-broadcaster Jim Barrett dies

He worked at WSUN and at WTVT-Ch. 13 before working in government.

ST. PETERSBURG - Jim Barrett, an educator and local radio and television broadcaster who also served in state government, has died at 69.

Mr. Barrett, executive assistant to former state Attorney General Robert Shevin in the 1970s, died Friday (Sept. 3, 2004) of cancer at his home in Palm Beach Gardens.

A former news editor at WSUN in St. Petersburg, he joined the staff of WTVT-Ch. 13 in 1965, and the station sent him to report on state politics as its first Tallahassee bureau chief, his family said.

He left television to serve as press aide for U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana and as public information officer for Shevin. He later worked for the former state Department of Natural Resources, the Florida Teaching Profession-National Education Association and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

James Thomas Barrett Jr. was born in Connersville, Ind., and received a bachelor's degree in English from Ball State Teachers College. He taught in Chicago and at Columbia County High School, Lake City Junior College and in Hillsborough County public schools.